Sexual assault reported on UTC campus, suspect at large

December 2nd, 2011by Staff Report in Local - Breaking News

UTC police are following several leads on a sexual assault that took place Thursday in a UTC parking garage, school officials said.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga officials said the victim is a student and that it wasn't rape, but a "physical assault of a sexual nature." It is not known if the attacker is a student or not, said the school's spokesman Chuck Cantrell.

But officials are urging students and staffers to be cautious, be aware of their surroundings and to try to not walk alone, especially at night.

UTC police responded Thursday evening to a report of the assault in the Fifth Street parking garage.

Schools officials sent an email alert Friday morning, urging students and staffers to be on the lookout for a white male, college-age, between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 with shaggy sandy hair, a scraggly beard, a slender, athletic build and wearing a North Face style all-weather red jacket. He escaped on foot.

The crime was reported to the Chattanooga police, but UTC's police department is leading the investigation, according to Cantrell.

If anyone has any information on the suspect, contact UTC police at 425-4357.